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westwhere2022-06-22 08:52 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-06-22 08:52 pm
the dissent
THE DISSENT
The winds of the Crossing dull down to a whisper, effectively lulling the two pirate vessels in place and stranding them, subject to supernatural occurrences. The hauntings of these strange, untrustworthy seas entail frequent nightmares, while mermaids coax you to walk the plank and voices in the wind accuse you of all your wicked faults or sins, true or imagines.
Quicksilver Sam’s newer crew aboard the Pariah weather this well, saying they were told the risks of traversing the Crossing when they accepted their assignment. But Caladan Kreil’s sailors of the Queen Zanyra grow increasingly restless, impatient and vocally accusing, questioning both Quicksilver’s wits and those of their own captain, who committed them to play escort to the Pariah in these dangerous seas. A brewing storm sequesters pirates with their dark thoughts.
Caladan Kreil attempts to pacify his people, first with reason, then by pinning hanging ropes to ships masts, and threatening to put them to fine use. More furtively, he asks characters to tame the spirits on his crew, promising handsome pay, better accommodations and a cut of the mysterious reward Quicksilver Sam has pledged him for completing the mission in the Crossing.
✘ OBJECTIVE: calm down the Queen Zanyra’s crew for the handful of days of poor weather.
■ Caladan Kreil offers characters a pouch of thinly ground opiates to share with the pirate crew — these powders are best licked off fingers alongside gulps of rum, or smoked in thin provisions by pipe. Careful not to consume them by accident or expose yourself too long to their scent: these strong narcotics trigger sluggishness in some, intense paranoia in others, and deep fondness in a handful. They often lead to hallucinations across the board.
■ Distract sailors with entertainment, performances, stories, song or spirited speeches. The crew is tragically fond of gambling and games of truth and dare, frequently challenging those who indulge them to perform some inane but publicly humiliating or slightly dangerous act. Indulge them.
■ Fish out pearls from the mermaid-infested waters, minding your limbs: pirates are financially sensitive souls, easily moved by bribes.
■ As pirates now congregate to chat and conspire among themselves, they leave behind their wares and personal belongings unsupervised more often than not — go on, do some looting, if you’re so inclined.
■ Weaponise existing superstitions or invent new ones to keep credulous pirates from pursuing bloodshed ( “I read your future in this scattering of fish scales, and you’ll die if you pick up a knife today. This complete stranger who is definitely not my associate can confirm.” )
■ In that vein, share scary stories or fake hauntings aboard the Queen Zanyra to keep pirates tucked in below deck and far away from mutinous thoughts.
■
■ Disarm, trick or talk down any pirate group that starts to speak of mutiny, particularly during the harder storm nights. If need be, lure them down into the brig, where Caladan Kreil can order them jailed.
■ Start figuring out ways to restart the sails, via magic, mechanics or, well, prayer.
■ While at it, try finding out why Caladan Kreil’s crew is so distrustful of their captain — and, particularly, of Quicksilver Sam.
PLOTTING
→ allison
( They've blasphemed against their women, aye, and sequestered them so often below the deck or in their cabins, like smuggled wares. He thinks, when he stumbles on the shapely silhouette of a dame, painted in brazier lights, cataracted, that she too might be a ghost of the Crossing — and he startles, from where he's posted by the railing, hands clutching metal and wood, righting himself back into composure thereafter.
Aboard the Pariah, Caladan Kreil is the guest, and the woman is the more natural inhabitant. He knows this. Knows, also, to be on his finer behaviour. Fair, then, when he brings two fingers to the lean rim of his hat, signalling but never executing a gentleman's salutation. Why waste effort, him? He be nothing of that. )
Careful, little friend. Your captain will think you a ghost and want you gone.
( And you would not wish yourself the subject of Samuel Vane's interest now, the edge of his smile betrays. For the better part of an hour, Quicksilver's cabin has housed wails and earnest screams, and inside it one priest or another has begged to silence the Pariah's captain, summoning him back to his senses.
Earlier, Quicksilver Sam still possessed his wits, when they shared the Pariah's finest dining. Now, Vane's meandered back to his merry, savage ways, and if Caladan Kreil is perturbed by the devolution of his ally's composure, he has the good grace not to speak the words aloud. )
no subject
Regardless, she needs fresh air if she's going to survive being on this boat. This particularly evening, however, she's engaged by someone, and it's not to tell her to get back below deck where she belongs.
She raises an eyebrow as she turns.]
The captain already wants me gone. He doesn't have to think I'm a ghost for that.
[She tips her head to the side.]
My captain but not yours?
no subject
( He corrects carefully, and remembers enough of his mimicked graces to shift, so the lady might seek warmth and shelter by the brazier's light. Small comfort, in a night so storm-brewed. Even the moon's a diffuse smear of dissolved chalks. )
You speak to a captain, lass. ( When he nods, it's towards a nebulous distance, where the fat and strong shape of the Queen Zanyra sways slowly, silently in dark waters. He knows the risks now, knew them in the coming — better he waits out dawns, than takes his chances of troubles seas on a small boat, to reach his ship again. ) That there, she my wife. Me, only here... to visit. Like gentlemen do. And I'm finding my good friend Quicksilver in sick tempers.
( Another scream, as if perhaps Samuel Vane times them for their pleasure. Caladan Kreil affords him a paternal nod. ) Now, what's a man to make of that?
no subject
[She straightens more, giving, a small curtsey of sorts. She doesn't know if pirates are the type to put on airs, but since he's making space to point it out to her, she'll acknowledge it. But she's still Allison so it's more out of courtesy than fear.
She does glance towards the sound of the scream, however. They are becoming more and more unsettling, and if her power were less unpredictable, she might have tried to intervene. Whatever is happening in there is making her skin crawl.]
Sick tempers? Is that what you call it?
[Seems a bit more than that.]
no subject
( And Caladan Kreil, nominal ally who has exerted himself and his crew of the good Queen Zanyra to play stalwart escort to the Pariah seems not at all startled by the thought of the alternative.
There's screaming, and then there's the animal sound that leaves Quicksilver's cabin, a whimpering not like ravenous birds in the sky. As if this man, this unfathomable pirate king who supposedly conquered the seas, needs protection.
Well enough, Caladan's bittersweet smile linger throughout. )
Only nightmares, that. And him, a man grown. What happens, when nightmares come? A man wakes with morning. And it's done. If he's got trouble in his heart or his head, won't be what kills him.
no subject
[It's simply a matter of who is wielding the nightmare and if they follow you to the waking world. But she's also learned not to take anything for granted in this place. That if someone is having nightmares, or anything is slightly off kilter, that means something is coming.
She just needs to figure out what.]
I take it the nightmares are a new element to your ... friendship?
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( Funnier still, how his ship waits at tight distance, and yet he can barely glimpse her. )
Came back with'em after his little trouble at sea, and now, look at him. ( More of the screaming, this time seemingly accusing ghosts staring at Quicksilver from an unspecified corner of the cabin. One of the priests raises his voice, calling him to silence. ) Wouldn't think he made the law of every sea he sailed, now would you?
no subject
Do you know what it was that triggered the nightmares?
no subject
( But it's a bitter endearment, something mutilated to offend. She's not the kind who preens at cheap, ill-gained affection. Expensive. Eyes sit in a man's sockets, so he can tell. )
Don't you? ( Pleasant, far too pleasant. As if he's about to explain her misfortune — as if he doesn't share it. ) He came here. And what it be he found, it sent'im scuttling back.
( But he's chuckling, meanly. ) Alone. They sent'im back like a dog. Marooned him on a boat. Think he starved'imself a little. Went a little more... off in his head. Sleep turned on him. What's it to us?
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They don't exactly share much with us woman folk.
[If he knew her better, he might sense the danger in her tone.]
So what? This is some kind of revenge quest? Does he think that what broke him can fix him?
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( And the shrug, ambivalent, as if Caladan Kreil may suspect more truth and story to this enterprise, but has no business or interest digging deeper. What's it to him, in the end?
The job was taken. It'll be paid. Let Quicksilver Sam satisfy himself. Although, and his gaze trails back out in the pitch-black distance: )
Not much revenge in it. Least he survived. They say that ship of his, the Storm at Sea'n'her people, they're still there. In the Crossing. Drowned.
no subject
[But that's not really the point is it. The point is that this is definitely a Captain Ahab situation and they're heading right for the white whale.]
Look, I'm not saying you have to save him from himself. But if you want to keep this business relationship or whatever it is you have intact, him getting himself killed isn't really going to help you.
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( There's ugliness in it, as if he'd just as well spit out the words. As if they both please and disgust him. )
You be taking care, little friend. Remember, is a captain who decides who's a righteous passenger, and who's a stowaway.
( If, when the Pariah enters his commission, then... that prerogative also becomes his own. )
no subject
So she swallows it back, softening the grit of her teeth to a smile.]
You take care too. Never know what might be out there.
[Or what happens if you deem the wrong passenger a stowaway. You want to make threats? She can make them too.]
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( This, nodding in the dark horizon, where the Crossing roils and gathers itself, like a wounded animal. He's seen her like before a storm. )
Same dangers in any water. ( The wilderness, the cold, the drowning. ) We're men. And we've got pistols and fire and rope.
( Enough of it to win his moniker, to have hanged a man only days prior — to spare, if needed, for a woman more. )
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But that's a problem for another day. Instead, she smiles sweetly, hiding the knife within her smile.]
Well. As long as you big strong men have it handled, I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine.
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He grins hard and mean about it. )
You be wanting advice, little friend? ( Not girl, not lass. Matters of sex are insignificant before the state of a man's coin purse. ) When I take over that ship, don't be on it.
no subject
A bit of advice right back at you: I would be careful who you decide to threaten.
[But with that, she's going to walk away, because she's had enough of power plays for today.]